Ferraris dominate practice in Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Ferrari led both practice sessions for the Turkish Grand Prix on Friday while Heikki Kovalainen rebounded from his crash in Spain with the second fastest lap in the morning session.

Felipe Massa, who is bidding for a hat-trick of wins in Istanbul, led Ferrari in the first session with a time of one minute 27.323 seconds -- the fastest time of the day -- before Kimi Raikkonen recovered from a gearbox problem that left him last in the morning session for an afternoon's best time of one minute 27.543 seconds.

Kovalainen, who finished fifth in the second session, trailed Massa by just over one-tenth of a second while McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton was second fastest in the afternoon.

It was Kovalainen's first drive following his high speed off at the preceding Spanish GP.

A wheel failure caused a tire on the Finn's car to explode and send him careering into a tire wall at 250 kph.

Though the crash left him in a hospital overnight with slight injuries, including a concussion, Kovalainen was cleared for Sunday's race after passing medical checks by governing body FIA on Thursday.

Raikkonen, who won in Turkey for McLaren three years ago, is coming off a win at Barcelona. The 28-year-old Finn also won the Malaysian GP for a nine-point lead in the overall standings over Hamilton.

Massa was third in the afternoon, ahead of Red Bull's David Coulthard.

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella will start the race three places lower than his eventual qualifying position after leaving the pit lane when the lights were still red

Drivers were increasingly tested by the elements through the day as rain fell in the afternoon following a cool morning session.

Massa, Hamilton and Force India's Adrian Sutil all spun out at turn No. 3 in the first session, with Massa recovering to set the morning pace despite also running off at a later corner.

Renault's Fernando Alonso, BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, Button and Timo Glock of Toyota all went off track in the afternoon, while a red flag was produced more than half an hour into the afternoon session when Mark Webber's Red Bull car veered straight into the wall when he tried to recover after going wide around a corner.

The crash destroyed the front wing to leave both wheels dangling from the frame.

Drivers return for a final practice session on Saturday before qualifying determines the starting order for Sunday's race.

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